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Saturday, December 3, 2011

As I have said before, we love making takeout at home. And as much as we like going out for sushi, it is also one of our favorite weekly dinners at home. On one of our first sushi @ home nights, we created what is now one of our favorite rolls and we named it the Wallace Roll. Cute, right?

On sushi night, we usually make Wallace Rolls, California rolls and edamame. We even plate it up pretty with little dipping bowls for soy sauce, chopsticks, etc. I haven't found a commercially available pickled ginger brand that we like, so we usually just skip that.

Give it a go! The preparation isn't difficult, but is admittedly a bit fussy. But if you're in the kitchen with someone you love making tasty food - who cares if it is fussy?? Missing Wheel of Fortune won't kill you, I promise! ;o)

Sweet Wasabi Sauce
2 tsp. wasabi paste
2 tbl. mayo
2 tsp. sugar
Mix all ingredients together, adjust according to your taste - it should be very hot and very sweet. Thin to drizzling consistency with water. Set aside.

When shrimp is done, set aside to cool. When rice is done, pour into a large bowl and toss lightly with several generous splashes of sushi vinegar. Stir occassionally until rice is almost cool.

While rice is cooling, prep the other ingredients. Seed, peel and slice the avocado. Slice cream cheese and roll into strips the thickness of a pencil.

When rice is cool, sit out a bowl of water for dipping your hands and start rolling!

For each roll, lay out a nori sheet. Wet your hands, get a good handful of rice and spread it thinly and evenly over the nori, covering all but an inch-wide strip of the end furthest from you. Rewet your hands as needed to keep the rice from sticking.

One third of the way from the edge closest to you, lay out your fillings in a line from left to right. Lay down a line of avocado slices beside a line of cream cheese, then top it with crunchy shrimp. Squeeze several strips of hoisin sauce over the shrimp and top with 1/4 cup of sweet & spicy crab. Roll tightly, slice into 8 pieces, and arrange on plate. Drizzle with the sweet hoisin sauce.

My mom and I have baked together for as long as I can remember. While her iced sugar cookies are my favorite Christmas cookies from my childhood, palimers are my favorite Christmas cookies from my adulthood!

These look and taste impressive. They are more or less heart-shaped with flaky layers and are covered in a thin crisp layer of lightly caramelized sugar - kind of like what is on the top of creme brule. Sooooo good!

One of my favorite cooking experiments is to try to recreate our restaurant favorites at home. We discovered coconut sticky rice at a local Thai restaurant and I have to admit that I refused to look for any recipes for it for several years. I was certain that we would fix it *too* often and end up regretting it. For the first month after I nailed down the recipe, we actually did fix it far too often. But now that it is more familiar to us, we can control it more. ;o)

The sticking point (pun intended) with making sticky rice in the average American home kitchen is that we don't have the equipment or the time to do it properly. Authentic sticky rice involves soaking the rice for a long time, then steaming it in a special bamboo steamer. Not gonna happen in my kitchen.

The recipes below are my take on this classic dish. I am very sure it isn't Thai-approved, but I am equally sure it is DELICIOUS!!

The first is more authentic; but the second is my favorite because the first place I tried this dish used jasmine
rice, so that is what tastes "right" to me.

Additionally, this is just thick rice pudding. So you can make it with whatever
rice you have in your cabinet to see if you like the base flavor before buying a
package of foreign rice. If you want to try the authentic rice, the only place
I've been able to find it consistently in Louisville is at the Asian grocers. Ask for sticky, sweet or glutinous rice - it is very short
grained, almost like a pearl. You can *sometimes* find it at Meijer or Whole
Foods....but you can ALWAYS find it at the Asian market. Also, some rices are
less sticky than others, so if it turns out too loose (it is supposed to set up
into a solid mass), just call it coconut rice pudding and go with it - it really
is delicious even if it doesn't set.

My favorite topping is salted coconut milk and canned mango. The canned variety
creamier, milder and less acidic, which is more like the actual Thai mangoes
than the fresh mango we can get a the grocery. Thai places around here
apparently special order Thai mangoes, but they are only available for a short
period. You can have canned all year long! But you can also top it with
custard, banana, other fruits or nothing at all. You can also play around with
the spices.

The only thing I would recommend NOT to play around with is the coconut milk.
Light coconut milk really isn't a good substitute in this recipe. Get the real
full-fat coconut milk (canned, in the Asian foods aisle).

Traditional Recipe
OK, strictly speaking, traditional sticky rice is steamed in a basket. This is
the microwave version. :o)

1/4 C sugar
1C sticky rice
2pinches salt
1 C coconut milk

Put sticky rice in a glass or ceramic microwaveable bowl and add enough warm
water to just cover the rice. Let soak for 10 minutes. After soaking, put the
bowl on a place to catch spills and cover the bowl with a dish (plastic wrap
will melt) and cook on high for 3 minutes. Carefully remove and stir the rice -some will be translucent and some will still have a white uncooked center. Cook
covered for another 3 minutes and stir it again. The rice is cooked when all of
the grains are translucent. Depending on your microwave, you may have to cook
it a few more minutes.

Heat the coconut milk over medium heat until it simmers, stirring frequently.
Add sugar and salt.

When the rice is cooked through, pour 3/4 of the coconut milk mixture over it
and let stand 5 minutes. Stir and spoon into small dishes, ramekins or forms.
Cool to room temperature and serve drizzled with the remaining coconut milk.

**Tip** I line my dishes with Saran Wrap before spooning in the coconut
mixture. It sets up as it cools. When ready for service, I unmold them onto a
plate and top with coconut milk and mango. Very pretty!! They keep fairly well
in the fridge if you top them with plastic wrap. Just warm them up a bit before
serving - you want them room temp or barely warm. The perfect serving size is
about 3/4 if a cup, (about a handful). It looks small, but this is a very
thick, sweet and rich dessert.

Cook jasmine rice in a pot according to the package directions, using any
remaining coconut milk place of some of the cooking water.

While the rice is cooking, salt the small bowl of coconut milk. It should taste
noticeably salty, but not quite as briny as sea water.

Heat the sugar and coconut milk over medium heat until the sugar is melted. Do
not boil.

When the rice is cooked, stir in the sweet coconut milk and spoon into serving
dishes (same as the recipe above).

Once it has cooled to near room temperature, it is ready to serve. Same as
above, you can serve it in the bowl or you can unmold it onto a dessert plate.
Either way, cover the top with sliced mango and drizzle with the salted coconut
milk.

I realize after typing all this that it sounds fussy. You do have to learn to
finesse it, but you really can't screw it up...and after the first couple times,
you will be a pro. :o)